This is what a Golden Horse looks like. (L-R) Best Director Ang Lee, Best New Performer Tang Wei and Taiwan actor Leehom Wang display trophies at the Golden Horse Film Awards in Taipei, December 8, 2007. (SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images)

China Heavyweight, a documentary by Montreal filmmaker Yung Chang, is nominated for a Golden Horse Award, for Best Documentary, at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. I wonder how heavy the award is?

China Heavyweight is up against three other films, which were all made by Taiwanese filmmakers. (To be eligible for a Golden Horse Award at least half of the film must be in a Chinese language.) The festival’s web site says that the 49th Golden Horse Awards Ceremony will be held on Nov. 24, 2012.

Yung Chang already has one Golden Horse on his mantel, trophy shelf, or wherever it is that he likes to keep that kind of thing. He won it in 2008 for his film Up The Yangtze. That film also won Best Feature Documentary at the 2008 San Francisco International Film Festival, Best Canadian Documentary at the 2008 Vancouver International Film Festival, a Genie Award in 2009 and Debut Feature Film and Audience Choice Award—at the Cinema Eye Honors in 2009. Hmmm, that shelf must be crowded.

China Heavyweight had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2012, continues to be shown at film festivals since then, and also had a limited release in Canada and the U.S.

The Golden Horse Film Festival web site gives this synopsis for China Heavyweight: “In central China, the state boxing coaches scout the countryside to recruit poor rural teenagers. These boys and girls undergo a rigorous training that grooms them to be China’s next Olympic heroes. As these young boxers develop, the allure of turning professional for personal gain and glory competes with the main purpose behind their training – to represent their country.”

And here are the synopses for the other films, again, from the web site of Golden Horse Film Festival.

Hand in Hand, directed by Juang Yi-tzeng, Yen Lan-chuan: “What could the tough-looking Mrs. Tian Meng-Shu fall prey to? Not the martial law but love! This documentary focuses on the love story between Dr. Tian and Mrs. Tian. It begins with their romance and then describes how passionately Mrs. Tian takes care of her husband. This film shows a symphony of life’s bitterness, sweetness, difficulties and simplicities.”

A review in the Taipei Times makes this film sound like a formidable adversary. Taiwan used to be a dictatorship, so political activism was a dangerous thing.

“Hand in Hand brings to light political events such as the 228 Incident, the Formosa Incident and the lifting of martial law not as hollow dates in history books but as parts of people’s lives, showing the passion, strength and sacrifice that helped to shape Taiwanese society. . .

“One of the film’s heartbreaking moments is an animated sequence depicting Yeh Chu-lan, the wife of human rights activist Deng Nan-jung , as she decides not to stop her husband from setting himself aflame in protest against the lack of freedom of speech under the authoritarian rule of the KMT in 1989. Another sequence shows the Tiens’ oldest daughter, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin, going to Lin I-hsiung’s home on Feb. 28, 1980, and discovering the appalling murders of Lin’s 60-year-old mother and seven-year-old twin daughters while he was detained on charges of insurrection.”

The couple already had the same family name when they met (which is one reason why Tian Meng-Shu’s family opposed the marriage). The film festival catalogue spells that name Tian, but the Taipei Times has it as Tien.

“Ming-Cheng started his ambitious plan to take photos of himself handstand in different places around the world at the age of 26. In 2-3 years, his first voyage was accomplished with a series of breathtaking photos featuring Taiwanese scenery, street view and local people. What lies behind this story is the unbearable loneliness during the voyage.”

If the trailer gives an accurate idea of this film. . . well, not be rude, but being able to walk on one’s hands is impressive, but I wouldn’t necessarily want watch it for very long.

Money and Honey, directed by Jasmine Lee Ching-hui: “This is an Asian epic documentary on migrant workers spanning thirteen years. Both the Filipino carers and the elderly suffer from homesickness in a Taipei nursing home. The carers comfort themselves by singing No money, no honey. What price do they have to pay for love and livelihood? Can their dreams ever come true?”

The Golden Horse Awards Ceremony is a very popular event. Just look at all these people. Thousands of fans surround the Keelung Culture Center November 13, 2005 for the Golden Horse Awards. Stars gathered in Taiwan for Golden Horse Film Awards, considered the Oscars of the Chinese-language film industry. (SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images)

The 49th Golden Horse Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012. The LS Times, a Canadian Chinese movie channel, will broadcast the Golden Horse Red Carpet and Awards Ceremony on Dec. 9, 2012.

Don’t forget that Yung Chang’s latest film, The Fruit Hunters, opens on Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 in Montreal (Cineplex Odeon Forum and Cinéma Excentris) and Toronto, and on Dec. 7, 2012 in Quebec City and Vancouver. The Fruit Hunters got a delirious welcome when it was shown at the recent RIDM film festival, here in Montreal.

Watch for T’Cha Dunlevy’s interviews with director Yung Chang, Adam Gollner (author of the book The Fruit Hunters) and actor and fruit fan Bill Pullman, in the Gazette, on Friday, Nov. 23, 2012.

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